


Toddler Blues and Terrible Twos

by Skyler10



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Baby!Fic, F/M, Fluff and Crack, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-25
Updated: 2015-04-25
Packaged: 2018-03-25 17:57:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3819631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyler10/pseuds/Skyler10
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tentoo and Rose have faced down plenty of angry creatures in their time, but how will they handle their greatest challenge yet... a wild toddler? Just a short little fluffy fun for your weekend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Toddler Blues and Terrible Twos

**Author's Note:**

> p.s. This was actually my first ficlet, written before I knew about the coral, so that explains why no TARDIS.

“This is what our life has come to, Rose,” the Doctor sighed at his wife from the kitchen table.

A bleary-eyed Rose reached up for her favorite tea mug and closed the cabinet as quietly as she could before indulging his melodrama.

“What’s that, dear?”

“I’m over 900 years old, flown across galaxies, seen the wonders of the universe and yet, you know what is the greatest mystery that yet alludes me?”

“Haven’t the slightest,” Rose replied mid-yawn.

“Why _are_ my hands so sticky?!” he exclaimed, showing her how his thumbs stuck to fingertips. “Always. I wash them, then as soon as I touch anything in this house, they are immediately covered in… what is this?”

“Mmm, jam, most likely.” At one point, a mysterious sticky substance would have triggered Rose’s sense of adventure. It would have meant aliens and racing for their lives. Now there was a more obvious explanation. A little creature had come into their world. One who currently refused to eat anything but jam on toast and jammy whammers.

“How did this… this craze get started?” the Doctor asked his wife as he washed and dried his hands again.

“I blame Dad. Mum is one for spoiling but has never had a taste for jam.” Rose began to wake up as her tea took effect. “I honestly don’t know anymore. Just grows so fast… changing every day.”

The Doctor realized how exhausted she was. They both were. They had been for nearly two consecutive years. Ever since their son was born.

“Hey.” He smiled, reached across the table and took her hands in his.

“Hey.” She gave him a small, weak smile back. After soaking in the moment just being together, she confessed what had had her in a blue mood lately.

“He’s not a baby anymore, Doctor. Our son is growing up.”

“He tends to do that,” the Doctor sighed.

“He acts more like you every day.” It was her turn to sigh.

The Doctor winked as if it was his secret plan, but honestly, he couldn’t have been more delighted.

“Rose? Have you seen... I mean to say, do you think he’s…”

“What is it, love?”

“Is he, you know, like-me like me?”

She read both hope and fear in his eyes. What were the chances their son was ordinary? The child’s father was a Time Lord in a human body and his mother was a human time traveler – and not just any time traveler. Bad Wolf herself.

They had, of course, asked the question many times before: when she found out she was pregnant, when he was born, as he grew into a normal-looking baby.

“Well, he’s exceptionally clever,” she pointed out, hoping that would satisfy her husband’s worries.

“Every parent thinks – ” He stopped at her raised eyebrow. “Ok, objectively above average, but is that really a surprise coming from you and me?”

“Suppose not. But so what if he is… you know… like you? Would that be so bad?”

“Genetically predisposed to rule time, filled with a longing for the galaxies, a yearning for a life he can never have…”

“Is _that_ really a surprise coming from you and me?” She gave him a wink to lighten the tension. “And I wouldn’t say ‘never.’ Not even you know where space travel in this parallel world will be by his time.”

His rueful smile told her he appreciated the effort, but it wasn’t that simple. She could never understand what it was like, not even if she remembered looking into the heart of the TARDIS. To be a Time Lord without any sort of time machine or space ship… trapped. But in a way, she did. They both loved this life they had built with the scraps of a universe parallel to their own. They had made it their home. But only after seeing things no one else had ever seen. They had laughed once about having to settle down, get a house with doors and carpets and a mortgage. But now, the only remnants of their former life they had left were each other. It felt cliché to even think it, but it was true. They had stayed sane these years by making this familiar-yet-foreign world a better place and by holding on to each other.

“Mummy? Daddy?” A blond toddler with his father’s eyes and round little cheeks peered around the corner.

“What is it, love?” Rose opened her arms to him. “Did we wake you?”

He cuddled in his mum’s lap and she used the opportunity to loosen his grip on the soft blanket he took everywhere. The Doctor picked it up and wrinkled his nose.

“Son, that is the dirtiest blankie I have ever seen,” he said. “But I do have an idea… would it be alright with you if I… say… popped it in the wash for a bit?”

“No.”

“Aw, come on. It’s only for a bit. It will be right here safe and sound just getting cleaner for you.”

“NO!”

Rose sent her husband a wordless glance that said “What have you done?” The Doctor stood, blanket in hand, unsure of what to do next. He had faced Daleks and Cybermen and all sorts of volatile creatures. He knew one wrong move could result in all-out war. Who doesn’t start out their day with a power struggle over a piece of cloth?

He took too long to decide.

“No nono no noo noooo!” The toddler meltdown had begun.

Rose did her best to sooth him and contain him at the same time, but it was no use. Out came the fists. At the first wild kick to his mother’s stomach, the boy was astonished to find himself swooped up in his father’s strong arms.

“JACK TYLER! Stop it right now,” he shouted. “We do not kick or hit! Just stop it! Do you understand me?!”

The screams had ceased and were now replaced by a single tear and a pitiful sniffle. The Doctor looked for either sincerity or manipulation in his son’s face. What he found broke his heart. Fear.

His own son was scared of him. Not respect, he wasn’t old enough to understand that kind of fear yet, but terror at the snarling man gripping his fragile body.

“I’m sorry, son.” The Doctor cradled his baby close and gentle. “I’m so sorry.” This last one he addressed to his wife who was clearly holding her tongue but held fire in her golden-flecked eyes. She relaxed and nodded.

Jack buried his head in his father’s robe.

“Sweetheart.” Rose gently laid a hand on the toddler’s back. “You know how a long time ago you didn’t like bath time, but now it’s fun?”

“Play,” Jack said.

“Well,” Rose improvised, “Blankie needs a bath as well. Time for Blankie to play in the washing machine.”

“Oh,” Jack said and dropped the ragged mess into her hands. She couldn’t help but smile at her husband’s mixture of surprise, admiration and jealousy.

“Come on then!” She called to both of them.

The Doctor held Jack over the machine as Rose dropped the blanket in.

“Say, ‘see you later, Blankie,’” she urged.

“See you later!” Both the Doctor and Jack obeyed.

Rose giggled at her husband, which made their son giggle and that, without fail, made the Doctor laugh from the heart.

“You see,” Rose said when their laughter had died down. “Sometimes we have to let go and say goodbye for a little bit to the things we love and they will come back to us, fresh and new again, even better than before.”

The Doctor met her gaze. “Even people?”

“Most especially people,” she assured him.

He desperately wanted to kiss her for that, but the wiggling boy in his arms wouldn’t allow it.

“Daddy, I can have banana?”

The two parents shook their heads at how quickly an almost-two-year-old’s attention could be diverted.

Bananas and devotion to Rose Tyler. Yes, the Doctor concluded, his son was very much like him after all.


End file.
